Caveat, Conventioneers
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (APRIL 2003)
Frequent
flyers of all stripes are heading for the hangar, as
book fairs and other conventions suffer dampened numbers
if not dowsed spirits. Sources tell PT that attendance
at the Salon du Livre was off 20%, despite extra
ebullience from the Canadian contingent, after young
Quebecer Marie Hélène Poitras took home the third
annual Prix Anne Hébert for her first novel Soudain
le Minotaure (Tryptique). And ditto for the
London Book Fair: though energy may have been
credibly soulful under the global circumstances, the
general take was “lots of talk, little biz.” Among the
US/UK axis at LBF, Simon & Schuster’s Marcella
Berger reported no cancellations, and Clare Alexander
of the Gillon Aitken Agency noted only that Harcourt’s
Andre Bernard and St. Martin’s Jennifer
Weiss were among the missing, the latter replaced
by George Witte.
Meanwhile,
much pouting in Cannes this week, where MILIA,
“the premier interactive content industry event,” took
place concurrently with MIPTV — Reed Midem’s
flagship confab for the television industry — in the
hopes of revving up what was touted as “cross-media
licensing synergies between games, digital media, and
global broadcasting content.” Press reports noted, however,
that the 9,000 buyers at MIPTV were 1,000 fewer than
last year and 2,000 under expectations. (Reed was still
gung-ho for its World Education Market, on May
20-23 in Lisbon.)
And the Jerusalem Book Fair has changed dates,
though not due to fears of errant Scud missiles. The
event was switched to June 23-27 after Frankfurt last
year, where it was learned that the previous dates clashed
with German sales conferences (Germany being a prominent
presence there). Deborah Harris, a fair board
member, reports that though of course “the world could
be a different place” by the end of June, indicators
are looking good and there’s been no word of cancellations
to date.
©2003
Publishing Trends
